The Monk Turns the Tables on the Nine-Tailed Fox - Chapter 3

I fiddled with the silver anklet and discovered that the monk had placed a restriction on it. I couldn’t take it off.

Resigned, I folded my arms.

“Well, tell me. How exactly are you going to sever this thing?”

He looked as though none of this concerned him.

“First, we fall in love. Then we sever the attachment.”

I sucked in a startled breath. My voice shot up. “Y-you… You’re a monk, and you’re tricking a fox spirit into…”

“Falling in love with you?!”

“Isn’t there another way? Pick something else!”

He gave a placid nod. “No.”

My temper flared. “And if I can’t fall in love with you? What are you going to do about it?”

He answered without hesitation.

“Then I’ll have no choice but to vanquish you.”

That smile didn’t reach his eyes. Sensing a fierce intent to kill, I sprang five paces away. “Monks aren’t allowed to kill!”

He was as composed as ever. “A monk vanquishing a spirit is perfectly reasonable.”

I swallowed and forced out the words. “Then… we could give it a try. Maybe I’ll fall in love with you someday.”

“I’m not scared. I’m just doing you a favor.”

I gave a couple of hollow laughs, struggling to salvage my dignity.

He turned and walked on, leaving me with a remarkably jaunty view of the back of his gleaming bald head. “I’m glad you’ve seen reason.”

I didn’t move.

But once he was more than five zhang away, a powerful force dragged me flying toward him.

With a whoosh, I landed hard right in front of his feet.

How humiliating.

Looking down at me with smiling eyes, he said, “It isn’t New Year’s yet. There’s no need for such a grand bow.”

Then he stepped around me and walked on.

My fists clenched.

My eyes darted as an idea occurred to me. I scrambled up and shouted at his retreating back.

“Husband! Wait for your little wife!”

My yell brought every eye around us onto the two of us.

Someone in the crowd cried out.

“Oh, what a sin! This monk’s a man who loves men!”

He stopped in his tracks.

I raced over and planted a loud kiss on his cheek.

…

The murmuring grew louder.

Someone even accused him to his face. “Shameless, depraved monk! Breaking your vows is bad enough, but with another man!”

I was thoroughly enjoying his predicament. I’d thought he would be at a loss.

Instead, he merely offered a monk’s greeting with a rather helpless air.

“This is an unfortunate man I rescued from criminals. Perhaps what he suffered affected him here…”

He pointed at his head and shook it. “I fear upsetting him further, so I can only play along.”

The crowd was immediately led astray. Everyone started giving him approving thumbs-ups.

“My goodness! He rescued the poor fellow, and even with him like this, he keeps him by his side at the risk of his own reputation. He’s a living Buddha!”

Someone started it, and a round of applause actually broke out around us.

The monk turned to me.

“Come here. Stand beside your husband.”

His voice was perfectly flat, yet I heard a dreadful chill in it.

I didn’t dare move. I didn’t dare refuse to move either. Stuck where I stood, I tried to recover.

“Hey, would you look at that? My head’s suddenly clear.”

“Monk… Master… Shall we keep going?”

He withdrew that forbidding pressure. I followed behind, thinking to myself.

With a temperament like that, he didn’t seem like a monk at all.

Preoccupied, I followed him out of town without quite realizing it.

After a day’s travel, we found an inn in the woods.

It was called an inn, but it was far from small.

Lights blazed. Music and song filled the air, and beautiful young women danced onstage, their long sleeves swirling.

The monk watched intently. My interest perked up, and I elbowed him.

“Who’s prettier? Them or me?”

Without so much as moving, he answered perfunctorily.

“You.”

I pursed my lips. “Then why are you staring at them?”

“Because they’re wearing less than I am?”

I clicked my tongue.

He finally deigned to glance at me.

“Because, like you, they’re spirits.”

“…”

The proprietress swayed over, leaning half her body toward him, her voice soft and seductive.

“A meal or a room, sir?”

He turned aside, neatly avoiding her. “Rooms. Two of them.”

She covered her mouth and gave a teasing laugh. “I’m afraid we only have one room left. Would you like it?”

He nodded.

I leaned close with a sly look. “One room? Monk, you’re going to sleep with me?”

His face showed no expression. “Yes.”

I choked. I could see it now: both consciousnesses in this monk were shameless.

Tanluan had obediently done a month’s work for me. I’d thought this consciousness would be easy to push around.

It turned out he was just as hateful as Zhiyuan.

I sprawled on the bed, tilting my head up a little.

“No room for you.”

He spoke slowly. “Were you hoping I’d lie on top of you? That would work too.”

I immediately drew my arms and legs in and rolled to the inside of the bed.

In the end, he didn’t get into bed at all. I’d been played again.

That night, about the time it took to drink a cup of tea after the lights went out, a fragrance drifted into the room. It was the crudest kind of seductive enchantment.

It had no effect on me whatsoever.

Besides, someone else was dealing with it.

I rolled over, turning my back on the seated monk.

Two breaths later, a rustling filled the room.

Countless little spiders covered the ceiling and walls.

A few were huge, with human faces and spider bodies: the proprietress and the young women we’d seen earlier.

The spider spirits surrounded the monk and spat silk. Just as the strands were about to wind around him, golden light burst out.

After a piercing scream, every one of the creatures crumbled to dust.

Boring.

I was about to drift off when a familiar mocking voice sounded beside my ear. “Little fox, how heartless of you.”

“Tell me. How should I punish you?”

Every bit of my fox fur stood on end.

“Zhiyuan?”